This Is England

3/12/2026

Directed by Shane Meadows “How economic precarity and national humiliation curdle into hate” could be the subtitle of This Is England, but that makes it sound more schematic than it is. What Shane Meadows has made here is first and foremost one of the most fascinating coming‑of‑age films I’ve ever seen, and only secondarily a political anatomy of how a lonely child becomes raw material for the far right. Coming‑of‑age stories are often simple, no matter how good. A kid meets friends, discovers sex, music, rebellion, maybe loss. This Is England gives you all of that and then shows you the bill. Thomas Turgoose, as Shaun, doesn’t just play a kid; he is a kid, in all his awkwardness, bravado, woundedness. He stole every frame for me, so incredibly authentic that you forget there’s a cam